A Proper First Light Part Deux

I wrote recently about my trip to Starizona down in Tucson and Dean's efforts to help me straighten out my imaging rig.  Let me reiterate that he went far beyond what would be considered above and beyond the call of duty in helping me.  Only a week later I was able to get some time away from civilization over the Independence Day holiday in Northern Arizona.

It's funny that we call it Northern Arizona because at best, it's central but I digress.  The original plan called for five days of camping near Happy Jack, Arizona within sight of the Discovery Channel Telescope but in the end it ended up getting cut short by the onset of the Arizona monsoon.  With my wife, kids and some other astronomy friends the weekend promised to be a good one.  There was a lot at stake from an imaging perspective for me on this weekend as it was the first time that I'd be putting all of the pieces of my recently overhauled imaging system together under dark skies.  I've made a few changes recently:

• I switched mounts from a Celestron CGEM to a Celestron CGE mount for the increased carrying capacity.  The new mount doesn't even seem to notice that the 11" scope and assorted goodies are even attached to it.
• I upgraded the guide scope from a 9x50 finder with a camera attached to an 80mm f/7.5 Vixen refractor.  The increase in focal length from 170mm to 600mm should result in much more accurate guiding - important as I start trying to move to longer focal lengths for imaging.
• This was the first trip to a dark sky since getting the secondary assembly on the OTA fixed and a new, shorter Hyperstar adapter for my QHY8PRO camera.

So what was the end result?  Nothing but good things.  I'm really impressed with the imaging system and how everything works together.  I've got a little work to do on collimation still, but overall the images are greatly improved.  I've attached a few that I'm happy with below - there's a few that aren't done yet that I haven't posted anywhere yet.  Stay tuned for them.

M5 - 15 x 60 seconds @ f/1.95
CGE Mounted Celestron 11" Edge HD, Hyperstar, QHY8PRO Camera

NGC 6888 - Crescent Nebula - 20 x 120 seconds @ f/1.95
CGE Mounted Celestron 11" Edge HD, Hyperstar, QHY8PRO Camera

IC5146 - Cocoon Nebula- 32 x 120 seconds @ f/1.95
CGE Mounted Celestron 11" Edge HD, Hyperstar, QHY8PRO Camera